The Italian language film, Respiro, is a touch of magical realism, Sicilian
style, based upon an old local legend:

The legend:

NUDITY REPORT

Valeria Golino swims topless. There is an
upskirt in which she may or may not be wearing underwear.

A small-minded and insulated island community
ostracized a free-spirited young mother, because they were unable to
relate to her mood swings and unfettered behavior. Many thought she
was insane. She disappeared one day, leaving no clue, no note, no
trace except her clothing abandoned on the beach. The townspeople
felt guilty for causing her to commit suicide in the sea, but their
prayers brought her back to life, whereupon she resumed normal life
with her family.

The film's interpretation:

The Sicilian wife (Valeria Golino) was subject to
severe mood swings and fits which could only be controlled through
medication. She refused to follow everyone else's rules. She freed
all the wild dogs, she swam topless in view of the local fishermen,
and she had a very strange, pseudo-incestuous relationship with her
oldest son. The townspeople, especially her mother-in-law, felt that
she should be sent to Milan for treatment of her mental condition.
Golino didn't much care for that whole Milan plan, so she conspired
with her oldest son to fake her own disappearance. The townspeople
then mourned her as dead, realized what they had lost, and talked
about her as if she were a Saint.

How did the film end? I won't tell you. I probably
should pretend that I am deliberately holding back to avoid a
spoiler, but in reality, I don't know what the hell happened. The
magic and the realism got intertwined, and then the credits started
rolling.

It's a film for the turtle neck crowd, thus too arty and
subtle for me. There is very little dialogue. The characters
speak in single, simple sentences or even just grunts, and the people in
this film slap each other more often than the skipper bopped
Gilligan with his hat. Literary types will find foreshadowing and
lots of symbolism in the fate of trapped animals on the island,
symbolizing Golino's own feeling of entrapment in the provincial
fishing village.

The meaning of the IMDb
score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of
excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars
from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm
watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars
from the critics. The fives are generally not
worthwhile unless they are really your kind of
material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics,
or a C- from our system.
Films rated below five are generally awful even if you
like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one
and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less,
depending on just how far below five the rating
is.

My own
guideline: A means the movie is so good it
will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not
good enough to win you over if you hate the
genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an
open mind about this type of film. C means it will only
appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover
appeal. (C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but
will be considered excellent by genre fans, while
C- indicates that it we found it to
be a poor movie although genre addicts find it watchable). D means you'll hate it even if you
like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if
you love the genre. F means that the film is not only
unappealing across-the-board, but technically
inept as well. Any film rated C- or better is recommended for
fans of that type of film. Any film rated B- or better is
recommended for just about anyone. We don't score films below C-
that often, because we like movies and we think that most of
them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know
that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below
C-.

Based on this description, this is a C-. It got some excellent reviews from
respected reviewers, and some awards, thus mandating at least a
C-. It is a film for a miniscule arthouse audience. In Italian,
with subtitles.